Condirri Trek and Huayna Potosi summit 6088m

We had decided long ago (or James had) that he wanted to climb a 6000 m peak while in the Andes having done 5600 m, and 5700 m these were not high enough anymore! So having done a little research we knew we could climb Huayna Potosi, which is very close to La Paz for a very small amount.

To be able to do this we were going to have to acclimatize ourselves very well, spending time at sea level had put us back to square one!

A good acclimitization package was a 3 day trek around the Condirri valley between 4400m and 4750m, this would leave us at the Huayna Potosi base camp ready for a summit attempt.

So out of all the companys in La Paz we chose one and excitidly prepared to leave!

 Day 1 - Wednesday

Our pickup from La Paz had to be 6 am to avoid the inevitable road blocks and protests that were going on that Wednesday morning. Its a normal occurence for people to litter the roads with rocks so cars cannot pass in or out of the city...

We had a 2 hour drive from La Paz to the smalll village of Tuni where the trek began, on route our guide Marcelo stopped to buy our food for the trek from a small street/road market.

Tuni was the smallest village, with only 20 families living there, bear in mind Bolivian families may have 7 or so siblings! but there were only about 20 buildings!

Our days walk began with the Huayna Potosi mountain looming over the small village, we got a scarry realisation of the scale of this peak.

We left Tuni walking for 4 hours in to the Condirri valley, so named for the famous Condirrri mountain that looks like a Condor bird, it is very beautiful but you require imagination. Our camp site for the first night was a beautiful glacial lake surrounded by towering white peaks, bliss! As a side trip for the day we decided to try to climb Pico Austria at 5200m, we didn't want to push it that day so agreed to get to around 5000m then return to our camp at 4650m.

At this camp we were lucky enough to have a refugio where we could eat meals in the warm, we were cooked a meal of vegetable soup followed by rice with a bolognaise type sauce, which was not that appetising....

By 7 pm it was time to retire to the tent for one of those long freezing snow covered nights waiting for the sun to rise again! We decided that night we would start taking our altitude drugs Diamox to increase our chances of reaching the 6000m summit a few days later. We were so excited and hyped!

Around 10 pm after a few hours sleep Sarah turned to me and said she felt really sick, I told her it was probably the Diamox playing us up a bit and to got to sleep as I felt it too.....20 minutes later she was sick out of the tent doors into a plastic bag.....20 minutes later I ran out and was sick as well........FOOD POISIONING from the dodgy street meat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We spent the next 10 hours vomiting, running in and out of the tent into the snow and ERRHMMM in the freezing temperatures, combined with running a high temperature going from hot to cold, made it a great start to our trip.

Day 2 - Thursday

It truly was one of the worst experiences of our lives, we were at despair, especially when we ran out of water in the middle of the night and James had 'projectiled' our last remaining Powerade.
In the morning we told the guide we were both sick and he retorted it must be altitude sickness. We explained surely 2 people getting sick at exactly the same time with the same symptoms, plus the fact that we had been much higher (5700m) that at 4600m this really was not the issue. We had a tough decision: To stay or return to La Paz??
James felt so bad that the only option was to go back to La Paz, but he had not really stopped being sick at this point and was so dehydrated that he thought he may need a drip or something. The guide called the office and said as we had altitude sickness and if we returned to La Paz this would be the end of the trip : NO REFUNDS.......

Regardless of this we had made up our minds and could not continue and could certainly not climb a 6000m mountain in 2 days anyway!!! So we sadly agreed to leave in an hour.

Soon after this a friendly face of Steve in the tent next door poked his head bravely into our sick tent and asked what was going on, admitting he had heard most of the nights dramas unfold live!!! He said it was a bad idea for us to try the 4 hour walk back to Tuni in our condition and to be honest we could only get up to be sick. There was no way we could trek for 4 hours!! So we told the guide we would wait until the morning and see how we were.

So if you have ever had food poisoning, you may know you get this feeling when you know its over and gone, whatever had hold of you has left your body and you get a little appetite back, you want a drink (can hold it down) and very quickly you re build your energy levels.

It was thursday afternoon when Sarah recalled seeing a bag of mince meat hanging from the back of the guides bag in the glaring Andean sun all day on wednesday! Rotting flesh in the sun is never a good meal....

Day 3 - Friday

By the morning we were feeling pretty good (comparatively) and asked the guide if we could continue. This would push the summit attempt back a day giving us 1 more day to get back fighting fit, he would try to ring the office and sort it out for us (at an extra cost).

We were lucky that two other girls called Lea and Lindsay travelling with the comapny were doing the same route, so we formed a larger group to walk together. A big thanks goes out to them for supplying us re hydration  powders and stomach medicine, thank you girls!!!

Fridays walk was not easy (esp on empty) it was a 7 hour walk, crossing a 5000m pass. This gave us our first real up close view of Huayna Potosi Mountain, it was beautiful and covered in snow from top to bottom it seemed!

We walked slowly and purposefully, and ate as much as we could. We were even lucky enough this day to see the famous Andean Condor circiling high up in the sky.

It was agreed with the agency we would have an extra day added to our itinerary at our cost, we were not happy as they were treating it as altitude sickness, but decided we could fight this out on our return to La Paz,. Sarah fortunately had a chat with the company owner and explained our side of the story and the manager seemed surprised to hear the dodgy meat story, so we started to wonder what had been said to the office!

Our second (or 3rd campsite) at 4750m was at the foot of Huayna Potosi,  a formidable sight to see when your looking out of your tent. After the days walk we felt good and had a good vegetarian meal of white rice!

An interesting topic of conversation between all campers were the make shift long drops. If you mix a wall that is made of mud and 3 ft high, with a 3m x 3m pit covered with rickety wooden slats with a hole- hey presto!!

Day 4 - Saturday

The final day of the walk was 4 hours to the low base camp and saw us climb another 5000 m pass, we had awe inspiring views of the ranges that we had walked from and were walking too.

We arrived at the Refugio where we would spend the night and were greeted with real matresses and even a toilet seat! A treat! We had a rice meal and relaxed for the afternoon playing cards to try to build ourselves back up.

We were given all our kit here: Helmets, ice axes, crampons, snow boots, snow trousers, gaiters, harnesses and gloves. As Sarah's back was giving her major problems, James had to pack and carry all the kit for both of us, which with water and a few other bits added like sleeping bags made roughly 20 kg! James would have to carry this to the high base camp 500m higher the next day.

Here we met Caleb an American guy who had been travelling for 15 months! so he joined our merry band!

Day 5 - Sunday

This was to be a leaisurly day, an 8am breakfast to leave by 8.30 for the 2 - 3 hour wak to high base camp at 5130m. It needed to be leisurely as we were going to wake up at 12am for the summit!

We started very slowly again, mainly to save energy but also to save Sarah's back for the night summit attempt. What we didn't realise was that we were being assessed on this this performance and were given time slots based on speed and therefore how long it was going to take them to summit the mountain! Doh!

We reached the refugio last  in 1 hr 55, under the time they had advised it would take. James had a massive bag and we were still recovering from food poisoning!

We ate and slept at the refugio as the weather appeared to get worse and worse, clouds rolled in and the snow started to thickly lay, not good for climbing conditions.

After dinner we had a chat with our guides and they explained what was going to happen and when we were going to leave. We were scheduled to be the first to leave at 1 am, which gave us 5 hrs 10 mins to get to the summit at sun rise. Now, we met a crazy athletic couple on the way up who did it in 4 hr 30 and we did not feel we were far off them. Yes we did have food poisoning 3 days earlier, but we are not sure the guides really thought about this. Oh well we thought we will just take it easy.

Next was bed for us at 6pm for one of those sleeps where you need to wake up at 12 am. The wind was howling over the mountain and you could almost hear everyone saying why the hell are we doing this!!! Plus the Diamox makes you need the toilet so we were constantly popping outside to make yellow snow!

Day 6 -Monday

The alarm started buzzing at 11.50 pm and everyone was awoken by the sound of Lady Ga Ga 'Poker Face' to Sarah's delight! We rustled around and sorted our selves out with all our kit......

• Liner socks, hiking socks, thermal trouser, trouser, snow pants, harness, gaiters, snow boots, crampons
• Thermal base layer, long sleeve t shirt, t shirt, fleece, waterproof jacket, 
• Inner gloves, mittens, ice axe
• wool hat, helmet
• Day pack, water, snacks, sun cream, sunglasses

Wow, ok we had everything!

We ate our breakfast of stale bread and Jam, well Sarah didn't and all prepared to leave at our allotted time.

As it approached 12.45 our guide shouted for us to leave, it was bitterly cold outside, we ventured to the glacier base that was 1 minute from the refugio, here we put on our crampons and we were ready to go.

We were the first out on the mountain that night so the path was covered in snow, every step was into think powder snow, the guide had said we were going to start with a really sow rhythm and see how that went.

The first half hour or so was not too steep and as we were walking so slowly we had no real problems. It was now we began to see a trail of fire fly lights below us following us up.

After about an hour Sarah's torch with brand new batteries went dim, yes the torch had lasted a whole 1 hr 30, great! So for the next 4 hours until sun rise she had to rely on the guide ahead leading the way and James torch pointing at her heels!

As we trudged on in places when you stepped off the trail you fell in snow as deep as your thigh, it was now around 2.30 that clouds rolled in and we were plunged in to a white world where all we could see was our small group and the next 10 meters.

Our next challenge was the only real technical piece of the trail, a 10 meter 45 degree wall that had to be climbed, in all honesty from our previous experience this was very easy and caused little trouble.

We had now reached a height of about 5650m and were approaching Sarah's record height and we were also there in very good time! It appeared we were walking far faster than our guides expectations and at this pace we guessed we would be at the summit by 5.30am, well before sun rise! At this point he advised we were going to drop the pace and walk more rhythmically.

Around 4.15am we reached 5800m, as high as either of us had been, it was at this point James began to feel slightly nauseous. He put it down to lack of sugar and ate 4 Oreo cookies, bad move, they were insistent on not staying down. The next 1hr 30 to the summit was going to prove a struggle for James now.

The next section of the climb was along a series of ledges with small crevase crossings everywhere, our guide would give them a gentle stamp (to check they wouldn't cave in) then hop over and give us the all clear. Sometimes when doing these things its better to not see what's around you! At one point all anyone must have been able to hear was Sarah screaming "James stay close to the rock" with his fear of heights this had James in all kinds of problems wondering what he was about to plunge down.

At the end of this section we had reached 6000m and found ourselves perched on a ridge, you could straddle a leg either side...It just so happened one side had a near vertical drop of approximately one thousand meters, again not great for James's vertigo! You could hear him swearing under his breath with his breathing becoming more and more erratic.

The guide stepped out first testing the ice all the way until he sat 10m or so higher than us, he shouted down "Follow up moving very slowly one foot at a time, and be careful its very dangerous". Great we thought, we can't print what James actually said as its not suitable for a blog of this nature.

Slowly we crept up one step at a time, bearing in mind your roped together so have to move in synch really.

When we reached him after completing the ledge, he made sure we were set securely and moved on, this section was about 5 m, flat but the path was as wide as your two feet, no room for error.
Again the guide shouted "PELIGROSO" "PELIGROSO" translated as dangerous. James was now in shreds, this for him was his worst nightmare but a good test.

We crept across, Sarah walking slowly and meaningfully, whilst James was on all fours whimpering obscenities, but we did cross it and we didn't fall, a huge bonus.

Now all we had to do was the last 60 or so meters to the top, it was a thin path again with the steep drop but a large snow bank to protect us.

At 5.45 am we reached the summit 6088m, the sun had still not risen but there was a glow all around the sky, we could see the 'Ciudad De Alto' La Paz, Illimani (mountain) towering over it, the route we had spent 4 days walking and if not for the clouds Lake Titicaca, also and Australian guy vomiting due to the altitude!

6088m, yeay!!

Not only had we made the summit but we were first there!! After everything that had happened in the previous week it was amazing. You could feel a real buzz of energy there everyone was hugging and congratulating each other this was going to be a day in each persons lives they would never forget. Sarah even did the MC Hammer 'can't touch this' dance!

You can almost see the curvature of the earth from 6088m!

Sarah at the top-freezing!

Being at the summit felt again like being on top of the world, above the clouds we so often look up to and wonder what's beyond....? Well it would seem people mad enough to par take in this extreme sport.

With no sun and buzzing wind we could not spend time at the top, we were freezing! We had enough time for a few photos then the descent.

The world was now bathed in the first light of the day and we could finally see what we had climbed and also the drops we had narrowly walked along.

Looking back at the ridge to the top

A narrow ledge that we had no clue about!

Back at the pass we met Lea and Caleb who were on their way to the summit we passed smiles and hurried past to allow them their moment.

As we scrambled down the ledges again, the sun began to finally rise and warm the world in light and heat once more.

Watching the sun rise

The colours were amazing!

The descent was to take two and a half hours, but by this point we were starting to run low on energy and fluids so we decided to stock up with several mini breaks. The problem was that all the water was mostly frozen and the snacks almost frozen!

Anyone for a slushy?

Coming down a mountain is always more beautiful than coming up as you can see the ice formations and crevasses properly.

Again looking back at the path- Great ski conditions!

Arriving back at the refugio we had hit the wall and Sarah was pale as a ghost. We had a chance to relax and eat before our final onslaught of the 2 hour walk back to low base camp.

Sarah slumped in a corner!

Once again James packed up his 20 kg back pack and prepared for the slow walk down. We arrived at the lower base camp and set up camp for a 1hr 30min wait where we had a very amusing game of 'Would you rather', we all agreed that if we had the choice between doing Huayan Potosi immediately again or giving up sex for a year we would do the later!!

So again another amazing experience had come to an end, we have met some amazing people who we have met again today as we are writing (1 day later) and we are hoping to do some tours with them in southern Bolivia in a few weeks. We have learnt that despite anything that happens we can still achieve great things and push ourselves to the limit and beyond. I (James) think Sarah should be a poster candidate for anyone who has severe back injuries and say that should not stop you doing anything!

But most importantly we can go higher :-)

UPDATE 9/10/2011